Practice Makes Perfect
by CandyCentric
Summary: COMPLETE! A different take on what could of happened when Clark told Chloe about his 'problem' concerning Lana. 2ND CHAPTER ADDED
1. Chapter 1

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT 

Summary: Completely off the wall one-shot from the mind of a crazy, lunatic.

Summary: Clark tries to figure out what to do after his conversation with Lana in her dorm room.

Rating: T

Spoilers: Lockdown

Disclaimer: Yeah, I've got Tom Welling tied up in my basement... ;-) Course not, don't own them & chances are never will. No rights, no money... nothing.

A/N - Wouldn't mind your opinions, just try not to roast me over an open pit, k? And this is just a one-shot, but if someone else wants to continue it, be my guest... you've got my total permission & blessing. :-)

After the whle scene with Lana, Clark needed to figure out some things. She had been right, of course, about everything she sid to him... well, almost everything.

He HAD noticed that things were different between them since he had 'died', and that difference was because of him. He WAS afraid to touch her, not knowing what might happen when he did. The reason why he was scared... that's where she had been wrong; for he was NOT the same person... not in the physical sense, at least. He had changed, gotten back his powers, and that was essentially, the problem. He had no idea how his powers might react -or what new ones might show up, for that matter -in that type of intimate situation. If he was to lose control... well, he didn't even want to think about that.

In the end, he had caved under the intense pressuse of her scrutiny and tried 'deflecting' - as she put it - her questions, only to be caught red-handed in the preocess. 'that's one of the reasons you love her so much; she knowsyou so well', he thought.

'HA. Yeah right', he snorted to himself, caught in a war of inner turmoil. 'She doesn't even know what planet your from, idiot. If you really loved her, you would tell her your secret.'

'No', his battle raged on, 'I won't tell her bacause I love her too much. She's already in enough danger as it is just knowing me.'

Both sides knowing he needed to talk about all this with someone - and both dreading the converstaion - he went over his list of potential people, which was by no means, a long list.

The thought of even breaching this subject with his parents again, even his dad, was just... too much. No, that would be left as a last resort.

After an hour long debate of all these thoughts and questions, he finally made up his mind and started walking.

Letting out a heavy sigh, trying to gather the needed courage, he looked upwards at the building where his feet had led him.

The Daily Planet.

"I know you didn't come all this way just to drop off this press release...", Chloe stated, waving the paper in her hand. She eyed Clark leaning against a desk, fidgeting with a Rubix cube. Watching his face, it was obvious the boy had something on his mind. "What happened?"

"That depends. How far do you want to cross this friendship boundary?"

"Ha. Since when do we have boundaries?", Chloe laughed, but when she looked up, she noticed Clark, however, wasn't laughing. her mind stated forming a mental list of 'boundary breaking' topics.

'What does he want to talk about? We've been friends for years... I already know about his 'out-of-this-world status'... but, so do his parents...

"Why do I get the feeling this has something to do with you & Lana?"

Clark sighed, "sort of... What's the verdict?"

Ok... just leave out all the details", Chloe answered, after a short pause. She stepped bach and jumped up un her desk to sit. "We're adults. If gets weird, I'll deal."

He hesitated, running his hand through his hair. "Everything was fine when I was human, but ever since I got my powers back, our... sex life... has kinda been on..." Chloe tried to brace herself for whatever he might say.

"On hiatus", he finally finished.

After a few seconds, Chloe let out a small "oh". 'And why do I need to know this?', her mind asked. Uncomfortable with the silence and realizing there must be more to it, she spoke up; "I'm sure I'll regret asking this, but... why?"

He looked up at her, noticing her discomfort. "Bear with me, this isn't exactly easy for me either."

Chloe gave him a wide smile in return. "Just call me Dr. Ruth!", she joked, trying to break the tension.

Apparently it worked, because she got a laugh out of Clark.

"Well, it usually takes a while for me to... adjust my powers to...", he paused, searching for the right words. "New situations."

"Ok...", she responded hesitatingly. "Then basically, your afraid that in the heat of the moment... what?"

Letting out the breath he had been holding, Clark ran his hand down over his face. "That's the thing, I have no idea. I mean..." Exasperated, he walked over and plopped down in the chair in front of Chloe, resting his elbows on his knees. "How frank are we being here?"

She thought about that for a minute... While this was weird, they were best friends. 'Who else could he go to about this?' After taking only a few seconds to go over all this she made her decision. "Ok Clark, lets just forget the normal friendship rules that apply & throw them out the window. ok?"

Clark sighed. "ok, fine"

"So, just say whatever you want to say or ask or whatever."

"Alright... Lemme give you an idea of what I'm talking about. You know about my heat vision, right?"

"Yeah, but what does heat vision have to do with this?", she asked, with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Well, I didn't always have it & at first I couldn't control it... The first time I head to deal with it, was at school... in health class. There was that substitute teacher-"

"The fire! that was you?", she interrupted.

"yeah", he smiled shyly.

"So someone say something to offend you or what?"

"Ha. Not exactly... All I knew is I was sitting there... watching the teacher... next thing I know, there's firing shooting out my eyes." The look on Chloe's face told him he'd really have to just dive head first into all this. Pull out all the stops. "Basically, this ... fire thing would happen whenever I..."

She could figure out what he was undoubtedly talking about. "got aroused?", Chloe offered.

Clark visibly blushed. "Yeah."

"Right. And we've now moved on to awkward to the 8th power... Anyway, so what your saying is, when this first started happening you couldn't control it?"

Clark smirked at her. "I'd prefer if you'd rephrase that." This time, it was Chloe's turn to blush.

"Couldn't control the heat vision", she corrected, smiling. "But obviously you can now... What did it take to get you to where you are now?"

Clark nodded his head and raised an eyebrow. "Practice."

He watched Chloe's mouth form an 'O' as everything clicked. "But in this situation..."

"Exactly. Obviously, I would never do anything to hurt her, intentionally. And you know I'd never just brag about myself... but I don't exactly have the same strength as normal 19 year old boy. Chloe if I were to lose control, my God, I could..."

Chloe snorted and finished the sentence. "Ride the hell outta her?"

Clark was slightly surprised by her bluntness and his eyes grew a bit wider. He would of laughed if not for the seriousness of the matter. Not to mention the fact that... it could actually happen. "Maybe not quite how I would of worded it, but, yeah... If a hard on made me shoot fire from my eyes, God knows what would happen when I'm... 'in the moment'"

She silently nodded her head as she seemed to let all of the information sink in. "And your still not telling Lana. Right."

Chloe could tell she hit a soft spot as he immediately started to get defensive. He jumped out of his seat and started to pace the floor around her desk. "No, I'm not gonna put her in that kind of danger. It's just not happening."

"Ok. Ok. Just calm down", she said putting her hands up and hopping down off the desk. "Let me just think about this, ok?"

He visibly relaxed and leaned against the nearest wall.

"Lana wants to be with you, but doesn't understand why you've been turning her down."

"Yes", he agreed.

"You want to be with Lana, but are scared you might end up hurting her because of your powers. And there's a good chance that after this... 'explosive alien sex' she'll realize her boyfriend isn't completely normal."

"Right", he again agreed.  
"And by not telling her, you can't warn her about what may or may not happen, but if you do say something then you'd just be putting her in danger other ways."

"Exactly, and this is where I'm left", he sighed, bringing one hand up in a fist to rest his chin on it. "I mean, if I could warn her... she would at least be ready to expect something... I dunno, maybe have some green kryptonite close by, just in case things get outta control." Shrugging his shoulders, he went on: "As far as I can see, there's just no way to win this."

'So what do we do?', Chloe thought. 'How can this work out? How can Lana possibly be safe with him if she doesn't know what's going on? What if Clark can't control himself?... If only we knew how he would react. How could-?

Clark knew the exact moment when the next idea hit her. She suddenly stopped pacing, flipping herself around to face him. She just stared for a few seconds before giving him a once-over, her face caught in as expression that Clark would guess meant she was weighing a very heavy decision.

"Clark, we love each other. right?"

The out-of-left-field question quickly snapped back his attention. "wh-what?"

"I mean as we friends. I love you & you love me."

"yeah...", he answered hesitantly, not having any clue where this conversation was going.

"And we would do anything to help each other out", she continued.

He was quick to affirm. "Of course."

Chloe then walked over to her desk and threw him his coat. "Then lets go", she stated determinedly, pulling a small box, a small lead box, out of her drawer.

"What? Go where?", he questioned, shrugging on his jacket.

Turning off the computer and flipping the switch of the lamp sitting on her desk, she started walking towards the exit. "My place", she said easily.

Rightfully confused, Clark stopped and shook his head, as if it would help him understand whatever he was obviously missing. "Your place", he repeated, trying to figure out what was going on.

Reaching the main entrance doors she turned and looked him in the eye. "Look, there's only one way I can see to figure out this problem. And it looks like I'm the only one that can you help you."

Possibly more clueless as to what was supposed to be happening here than in his entire life, he hesitatingly asked: "Help me what?"

With a new spark in her eye that he had never noticed she confidently answered. "Practice."

As completely shell-shocked Clark was that she had even come up with such an idea, he was even more amazed that he actually let her drag him out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Author: CandyCentric

Rating: T

Spoilers: Lockdown

Disclaimer: Yeah, I've got Tom Welling tied up in my basement... ;-) Course not, don't own them & chances are never will. No rights, no money. . . nothing.

WARNING: If you're a Chlark fan, this story already ended for you at chapter 1, if not, then: 'May I present to you:

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT - Chapter 2

"Chloe, you can't be serious."

She looked over at Clark, who had been staring at her for some time now. _'What's his problem?'_ Shrugging her shoulders, she started digging through her purse looking for the car keys.

Upon noticing he was making no attempt to get in the car and tired of being stared at like a leper, she finally asked, "What?"

"What?", he repeated. _How can she be serious? She can't, I'm obviously dreaming. No, I wouldn't dream this, which means . . . I'm stuck in the Twilight Zone. That's it._

Chloe rolled her eyes and laughed. "Yes Clark, what. As in, what's the big deal? Or, what are you freaking out about?"

"What's the big deal?" He again repeated.

"Is there an echo in here?"

Frustrated, Clark let out a small sound, which could only be described as a perturbed growl. "I don't know what kind of game your playing, but I, for one, am NOT amused. I mean, who are you? Certainly not the Chloe Sullivan I used to know, because she never would of even joked at something like that."

"Well EXCUSE ME for trying to help!" She yelled, hurt by his words and mad at the way he was treating her. All because she wanted to help out a friend in need.

"Help?", he exclaimed. "And tell me how, exactly, sleeping with me would help anything!"

Silence.

Seconds passed, during which Chloe didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't even bat an eyelash.

Clark was rightfully annoyed at the whole situation, which he, had gotten himself into. As he noticed the corner of her mouth turn slightly upwards on one side, he slammed the palm of his hand over his face. Fighting the urge to unleash his frustrations by growling into his hand, he mentally tried to calm his breathing_. 'Breathe Clark, just breathe. There's obviously something wrong, she . . . what was that?'_

Slowly bringing his hand down, he was greeted with a smiling Chloe, who appeared to be half-heartedly trying to hold back a giggle. However, upon catching him looking at her, she broke into full-blown laughter.

'_How am I supposed to deal with this?'_ He watched in bewilderment as her laughter grew so much she had to physically reach her hand out to grab hold of the car, to keep her balance. Irritated beyond belief, he forced himself to keep his voice at a decent level. 'WHAT. IS SO. FUNNY?"

In between bouts of giggles, Chloe tried desperately to respond. "You . . . you thought . . . that . . . "

All patience having left a few giggles back, he yelled: "I thought what, Chloe?"

Finally bringing her laughter under some particle of control, she 'giggled' out: "You thought I was offering to sleep with you?"

Greatly confused, he hesitatingly asked, "What?"

"You did! You thought I wanted to sleep with you!"

Clark wasn't quite sure how to reply to that. "Well, don't you?"

She laughed softly at his reasoning. "Either way, I think that's kinda besides the point."

Clark's nonexistent stuttering problem suddenly surfaced, along with slightly tinted cheeks. "But . . . you said that . . . that you love me. And that we . . . that we're . . . " The entire scope of the conversation & hole he had dug himself into hit Clark like a meteor. "Oh my God." He finished, with his cheeks now burning. He closed his eyes in hopes that this all really was just a bad dream.

Chloe moved a step closer and put her hand on his arm. "You know I love you Clark, but as a friend. I also know you and Lana love each other, that you want to keep her safe. But as your best friend I feel a responsibility to tell you that you can't keep lying to her, and you can't just break up with her without giving her a reason. It's not fair to her, or you. So what I was suggesting . . . " She couldn't help but smile as Clark blushed even harder. "Was that you 'practice', what your gonna tell her, with me, because that's really the only way I see out of this. Then, after that, we can just go from there."

"Oh." Clark wasn't too sure what all he was feeling. The word 'stupid' came to mind, along with surprise, embarrassment, and in some weird way, maybe even . . . disappointment?

"Look, I'm sorry if I offended you, or said stuff you didn't want to hear, but I just want what's best for you, for you to be happy, and I think telling Lana is the best way to do that."

Finally finding some words to string together, he thanked whatever power was up there for letting him know such a great person.

"I know Chloe, and thank you. You've always been such a great friend to me." He grabbed her up in a tight hug.

"You too, Clark." She replied, letting go.

"I'm sorry if I yelled at you."

"Don't worry about it, I think I may have done some voice raising myself."

"And you're right, Lana does deserve better . . . It's just so hard sometimes, but . . . maybe I should tell her." Throwing an arm around her shoulders, he added: "Think ya' might be able to help out a friend in need?"

Not able to let that one pass, Chloe smiled. "That depends, will I have to sleep with you?"

He laughed out loud at her at her question, but felt the need to tease her a bit back. "Only if you want to," he smiled.

"CLARK!", she laughed.

"Kidding, kidding."

"You better be . . . and after all the stress you put me through, I think I deserve dinner."

"Oh you do, do you? We'll just have to see about that . . . "

A/N - well, there you have it ladies and gentlemen. My first series fic. (Yeah, a whopping 2 chapters! Yea) Anyway, hope you liked it, sorry about the wait & keep in mind I truly adore REVIEWS. So, just push that li'l button down there & let me know whether ya' loved it, liked it or think it deserves to be put in the 'Bad Fic Hall of Fame'. Thanks:-)


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